The shuttered Miss Albany Diner rises again. Who can forget the packed booths and steaming coffee refills on a Sunday morning? Or Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in "Ironweed?" Luckily, all the vintage charm of the 1941 Silk City railroad diner was preserved in its second, short act as Sciortino's before closing again. When Tanpopo Ramen and Sake Bar opened up in the iconic space on Broadway this summer, it was as if the Capital Region breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Ramen noodle bars are part of the fabric of Japanese life, catering to hungry commuters who wait in line for the convenience of soft-chewy hand-pulled noodles and steaming, soul-stirring, bone-based broth. Endless regional variations make this the ultimate in slow-cooked fast food. Since the mid-'90s, they've popped up from London to New York City, crowds packed into tiny spots slurping noodles for all they are worth. Kick-started by David Chang's Momofuku Noodle Bar in Manhattan, the spread stateside continues unabated. Just last week I battled for elbowroom at the Momofuku counter minutes after opening.

We're not talking the cheap, MSG-laden, packet ramen noodle invented by Momofuku Ando in 1958 and synonymous with low-budget student life. Classic Chinese-style wheat noodles differ from all others thanks to kansui, alkaline water. Alkaline salts react in the noodle dough, giving ramen its distinctive flavor, yellowness and — critically — a firmness that holds up in soups instead of disintegrating into mush.

The trend for Chinese-style ramen noodles in Japanese soup traveled back to China and became known as Japanese-style ramen. Given the circular backstory, it seems fitting David Zheng, owner of Tanpopo as well as Sake Café on New Scotland Avenue, is actually Chinese. The Tanpopo name, popular among noodle bars from Virginia to Minnesota, means "dandelion," but Zheng chose it for its symbolism of hardiness and perseverance, not the Japanese girl band.

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Cuisine: Ramen noodle bowls, Japanese rice dishes, pork belly buns and a small mix of salads and appetizers. With a beer and wine license, Tanpopo has a growing selection of hot and cold sake from $12 to $22, a handful of wines and several beers. Zheng plans to scale back to offer Druther's IPA, Nine Pin Cider and Japanese Sapporo, $6 to $7.

Ambiance: An updated twist on the vintage railroad-style dining car. Retains some original details from the 1940s. Cozy booths or communal counter service.

Price: $$

Hours: 11 a.m. to close Monday to Saturday, noon to close Sunday. (Closing, never earlier than 10 p.m., depends on late-night business.)

Credit cards: All major.

Parking: On-street parking or Universal AutoParts lot across the street. Shared parking lot next to Stout is available after 5 p.m.

Handicapped accessible: No. Steps up to entrance. The diner is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Price ratings for inexpensive eateries based on average of entrée costs:

$: $9.95 and less

$$: $9.95-$15.95

$$$: $15.95 and higher

I felt a surge of happiness climbing the former Miss Albany steps. Zheng credits his Sake Café customers for urging him to keep the vintage diner largely unchanged. New booths, subway wall tiles, half of the counter replaced with a full-height bar and overhead TVs are modern updates, as is the pumping power pop soundtrack. But the original geometric floors, signage and retro menu boards — plastic grooved racks holding boxy white lettering — are sure to trigger bouts of nostalgia.

Any ramen expert will tell you the broth is as important as good noodles. Zheng and his wife, Jenny, may not be hand-pulling foot-long ramen in the kitchen, but their tonkotsu broth of pork bones, kombu (kelp), scallions and celery is simmered for a traditional 12 hours. Zheng offers Tokyo Wave, a popular curly ramen made by Sun Noodle in New Jersey (and served in Momofuku) or, for the gluten-averse, lighter rice noodles.

Appetizers are a bland mix of Western palate-pleasers: fried crab rangoons (8 for $6), gyoza dumplings ($5), shumai ($5) and dark-brown tiny haru maki spring rolls (three for $4), deep-fried half to death almost certainly from frozen. Skip them. Order the pork belly buns (two for $7) and spend more time on the convincing sake menu.

The pillowy fold of a white, steamed Chinese bun clamped around glistening pork belly always reminds me of a drooling sock puppet. In Tanpopo, the spongy buns are a smidge stickier than they should be, possibly from defrosting, but it doesn't detract. They wrap quivering, fatty pork belly with sweet-savory hoisin and shredded scallions, hugging them tight. A salad delivered to a neighboring booth looked bright and crisp, but we hadn't come for iceberg and dressing. This visit was all about the broth.

Original tonkatsu broth is rich with fat and salt from slowly simmered pork bones, sometimes bolstered with chicken bones or bacon. Zheng's tonkatsu broth is less creamy and complex but still flavorful and does triple duty in tonkatsu ramen ($11), spicy Tanpopo ramen ($12) — identical but spicier — and, strangely, miso ramen that typically has a chicken or fish base.

Bowls are prettily piled with chashu (sliced pork), flower-shaped pressed fish discs with lollipop swirls and dark kikurage mushrooms. Flavors tack and layer beneath the heat of spicy pork paste that sneakily builds and slaps you till your nose runs. Stir it in well to avoid inhaling a chunk, as I unwittingly did, that will have you grabbing for any Sapporo or sake within reach. Add a seasoned hardboiled egg ($2) to complete the protein scale and ramen appearance. Just know the pale yellow yolks come hard enough to slice. A soft-boiled yolk — gooey and tangerine gold — better coats noodles and enriches the broth.

Tanpopo's robust, sweet-nutty miso ramen ($11) is loaded with miso paste, kikurage and bamboo shoots and easily outperforms chicken soup as food for the soul. Oddly, the centers of my chashu — but not my guest's — were refrigerator cold. For those who care, a simple six-hour chicken broth is behind the roast duck and beef stew ramen bowls, and vegetarians can happily count on a meat-free broth, though it's not homemade so ingredients, and possible MSG, are unknown.

In Japan, ramen evolution trumps regional authenticity: It's all about the next big noodle trend. Tanpopo doesn't have trendy tsukemen (ramen served with dipping broth) or newer mazemen (brothless ramen), but it serves hearty regional bowls — call it Albany ramen, if you will. Portions are modest if filling, and though toppings add up, an extra bowl of noodles are reasonable at $2 more. As temperatures dip, I'm planning my return. In time, Tanpopo should have a line snaking out the door.

Dinner — including two appetizers, two noodle bowl entrées with extra toppings, beer and sake — came to $76.64 with tax and tip. A single noodle bowl with toppings averages $15.

Susie Davidson Powell is a freelancer writer from East Greenbush. Follow her on Twitter, @SusieDP. To comment on this review, visit the Table Hopping blog, blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping.